Measured coin compartment for cash drawers



Oct. 30, 1956 J. R. WALLACE MEASURED COIN COMPARTMENT FOR CASH DRAWERS Fi-led Dec. 15 1953 FIG. I

INVENTOR JACK R.WAL.LACE

IS ATTORNEYS nited States Patent NEASURED COIN COMPARTMENT FOR CASH DRAWERS Jack R. Wallace, Oakland, Calif., assignor to The National Cash Register Company, Dayton, Ohio, 2: corporation of Maryland Application December 15, 1953, Serial No. 398,317

2 Claims. (Cl. 206.81)

This invention relates to improvements in cash drawers, coin tills, and the like.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a cash drawer or coin till with compartments for holding a measured number of coins.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cash drawer or coin till with a measuring means for each value of coin handled in cash drawers and coin tills, to make it unnecessary to count the number of coins of each value stored therein.

A specific object of the invention is to provide a meas uring means for coins in a cash drawer or coin till which may be used to store a measured number of coins in the cash drawer or coin till at the end of a days business, to provide the desired change for the next days business without the necessity of counting the coins left therein.

It is another object of the invention to so construct the coin-measuring compartments that they may be added to a till in use, or they may be built into the till when it is manufactured.

With these and incidental objects in view, the invention includes certain novel features of construction and combinations of parts, a preferred form or embodiment of which is hereinafter described with reference to the drawing which accompanies and forms a part of this specification.

In said drawing,

Fig. l is a plan view of a conventional cash drawer till showing the coin holders attached thereto;

Fig. 2 is a detailed cross-sectional view of one of the coin holders shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a detail cross-sectional view illustrating the construction of a modified coin holder; and

Fig. 4 is a detail cross-sectional view of a coin holder made of wood or plastic, and illustrates one method of securing it in the coin compartment.

General description In department stores and the like, where a number of cash registers are used, it is customary to retain a predetermined amount of cash in the cash drawer at the close of a days business, so that sufiicient coins are in the coin tills for making change during the course of the next days business. The remainder of the cash is delivered to the cashier, who counts it and credits it to the register from which it is taken. This procedure is time-consuming, and, since the counting of coins to be retained for the next days business is done after store hours, many errors in the count are made due to haste in making the count, thus making rechecks necessary to balance the cash against the records on the totalizers of the cash register. This leads to a further consumption of time, and, when many cash registers are in use in a single store, the delays in balancing the days cash can become multiplied to a point where they become a major cost in the operation of a business.

In some business establishments, it is customary to turn Patented Oct. 30, 1956 in all the cash from the various cash drawers at the end of a buiness day. Such a system is objectionable because it delays the opening of the next days business until the clerk can obtain her change from the cashier and place it in the till. This delay is obviated by use of the novel till disclosed herein.

The disclosure illustrates a coin holder, adjacent each coin compartment, which holds a measured number of coins. The number of coins depends on the width of the coin compartment of the till. As illustrated herein, the coin holders are located near the rear of each compartment and are curved in shape to receive coins standing on edge. Since coin tills of various sizes are used, the number of coins stored in the coin holders vary with the drawer sizes. However, the number of coins is constant for a given coin holder. Once the capacity of a holder has been established, the coins need not be counted. All that the clerk need do is fill the coin holder. In the morning, when the store opens for business, the clerk merely removes the coins from the coin holder and flips them into the adjacent coin compartment, and she need not count them, since the capacity of the holder has been established.

Finger openings can be provided in the bottoms of the coin holders to facilitate removal of the coins from the holders.

Detailed description The invention is disclosed embodied in a conventional cash drawer till 20 (Fig. 1). Such tills are provided with coin compartments for various coins, such as pennies, nickels, quarters, and half dollars, and also with compartments for currency. The four compartments 21, 22, 23, and 24 (Fig. 1) across the front of the till are for receiving coins of smaller denominations. The denominations of the coins in the compartments vary with the demands of the business where used.

A coin storage holder 25 is located at the rear wall of each coin compartment, and the bottom is curved to con form with the size of the coin to be stored. The holders may be formed on the rear walls 26 of the respective compartments, as shown in Fig. 2, or, if it is desired to add the coin holders to a till already in use, they can be made as separate pieces. In such construction, the rear end of the holder is provided with a vertical wall 27 (Fig. 3), which can be slipped over the rear wall 26 of the compartment. T o firmly maintain the holder in position, the wall 27 can be provided with one or more teats 28, adapted to snap into openings 29 in the wall 26 located to receive the teats 28 when the coin holder is in position. The reverse arrangement may also be used; that is, the teats can be formed in the walls 26 and the holes pierced in the vertical walls 27.

Any material may be used to form the coin holders, such as wood or plastic, as, for example, illustrated in Fig. 4. When such material is used, the holders are held in place with screws 3% or any other suitable fastening means.

To facilitate removal of the coins from the coin holders, openings 31 can be cut in the bottoms of the coin holders, through which the operators finger can pass to lift the coins out of the holder and drop them into the adjacent compartments. Thus, when getting ready for the opening of a store, all that the clerk need do is run her fingers through the openings 31 and flip the coins into the change compartments. No count is necessary, since the length of the coin holder measures the number of coins.

The drawing illustrates a conventional drawer in plan view (Fig. 1) and shows one coin holder filled to capacity with coins. The number of coins constituting the capacity is not important, since, once the capacity is determined, all that the clerk need do at the end of the day is fill the holder and turn the balance over to the cashier. Since the days business was begun with the holders filled to capacity, the coins remaining in the till compartments after the holders have been filled represent the days receipts and should balance with the records in the machine. At no time is it necessary to take into consideration the coins in the various holders, since, once a cash register has been placed in use, the original amount of change provided is always the same. This is determined by the measured quantity restored to the coin holders at the end of the day.

As illustrated, the coin holders extend from side wall to side wall of the coin compartments. This provides for a maximum number of coins limited only by the width of the coin compartments. Thus the number of coins in each holder is variable with the particular compartment. If it should be desired to limit the number of coins to a specific number, the coin holders would be shortened according to the requirements. In such case, the coin holders would not extend the full width of the coin compartments of the till.

An additional advantage to the bookkeeping and cashiers departments is that the total amount of coins in all cash registers set aside for making change is constant and does not vary from day to day. Thus the change account is constant on the company books, without periodic and time-consuming invoicing.

While the form of mechanism shown and described herein is admirably adapted to fulfill the objects primarily stated, it is to be understood that it is not intended to confine the invention to the one form or embodiment disclosed herein, for it is susceptible of embodiment in various other forms.

What is claimed is:

1. In a cash drawer of the class described, the combination of a coin compartment for receiving coins for use in making change in handling business transactions, a coin counting and storage holder for storing a measured number of coins standing on their edges prior to the first sale of a business period, said holder suspended within the change making compartment, and an opening in the holder to facilitate flipping the coins from the holder directly into the change making compartment.

2. In a cash drawer of the class described, the combination of a coin compartment for use of coins in making change in handling business transactions, a coin holder for storing a measured number of coins standing on their edges, and means to attach the coin holder inside the coin compartment on one Wall thereof and in such relationship to the compartment to facilitate flipping the coins from the coin holder into the coin compartment.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 189,956 Read Apr. 24, 1877 210,621 Miller Dec. 10, 1878 219,287 Meaker Sept. 2, 1879 2,594,653 Jertson Apr. 29, 1952 2,604,975 Neilsen et al. July 29, 1952 Slonneger Apr. 28, 1953 

